Not the happiest Hogmanay in culture, admittedly, but Nick Hornby’s 2005 novel opens with its four main characters accidentally choosing the same London roof to jump from on New Year’s Eve. Their plans for a solitary death ruined, TV host Martin (an Alan Partridge-meets-Richard Madeley figure), lonely single mother Maureen, rudely angsty teenager Jess and failed rock star JJ form a pact, agreeing to postpone their suicides. The story unfolds in unexpected directions from there, involving an angel (who looks like a naked Matt Damon), a long-lost sister and a group holiday to Tenerife. Read the blackly comic book rather than subjecting yourself to last year’s godawful film adaptation.

Bonnie and her brother went through about four homes and foster homes together, and when they arrived at the Milo Foundation someone named them Bonnie and Clyde. I don't know if this was because of her anti-authoritarian streak, but in any case we didn't see it as a warning. Perhaps we should have…...[read on]

Ann Decker fixes computers for a living, and in the evenings she passes the time sharpening her hacking skills. It’s not a very interesting life, but she gets by—until one day she’s contacted with a job offer for a company called Transformations Incorporated. None of her coworkers have ever heard of it before, and when Ann is finally told what the company does, she can hardly believe it: TI has invented technology to travel in time.

Soon Ann is visiting a matriarchy in ancient Crete, and then a woman mathematician at the Library of Alexandria. But Transformations Incorporated remains shrouded in mystery, and when Ann finally catches her breath, there are too many troubling questions still unanswered. Who are Transformations Incorporated, and what will they use this technology to gain? What ill effects might going back in time have on the present day? Is it really as harmless as TI says?

When a coworker turns up dead, Ann’s superiors warn her about a covert group called Core out to sabotage the company. Something just isn’t right, but before she has time to investigate, Ann is sent to a castle in the south of France, nearly a thousand years in the past. As the armies of the Crusade arrive to lay siege, and intrigue grows among the viscount’s family, Ann will discover the startling truth—not just about the company that sent her there, but also about her own past.

In Empires of the Sea and City of Fortune, New York Times bestselling author Roger Crowley established himself as our generation’s preeminent historian of the great European seafaring empires, and the go-to author for post-Crusade clashes of East and West. Now, in Conquerors, Crowley gives us the epic story of the emergence of Portugal, a small, poor nation that enjoyed a century of maritime supremacy thanks to the daring and navigational skill of its explorers—a tactical advantage no other country could match. Portugal’s discovery of a sea route to India, campaign of imperial conquest over Muslim rulers, and domination of the spice trade would forever disrupt the Mediterranean and build the first global economy.

Crowley relies on letters and eyewitness testimony to tell the story of tiny Portugal’s rapid and breathtaking rise to power. Conquerors reveals the Império Português in all of its splendor and ferocity, bringing to life the personalities of the enterprising and fanatical house of Aviz. Figures such as King Manuel “the Fortunate,” João II “the Perfect Prince,” marauding governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and explorer Vasco da Gama juggled their private ambitions and the public aims of the empire, often suffering astonishing losses in pursuit of a global fortune. Also central to the story of Portugal’s ascent was its drive to eradicate Islamic culture and establish a Christian empire in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese explorers pushed deep into the African continent in search of the mythical Christian king Prester John, and they ruthlessly besieged Indian port cities in their attempts to monopolize trade.

The discovery of a route to India around the horn of Africa was not only a brilliant breakthrough in navigation but heralded a complete upset of the world order. For the next century, no European empire was more ambitious, no rulers more rapacious than the kings of Portugal. In the process they created the first long-range maritime empire and set in motion the forces of globalization that now shape our world. At Crowley’s hand, the complete story of the Portuguese empire and the human cost of its ambition can finally be told.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

I finished Unidentified Woman #15 by Edgar Award Winning author David Housewright last night. I was happy to sit down with it a few late evenings this week, not just because David has become a friend of mine, but also because he’s a fine writer who knows how to weave together the elements that make a great mystery tale. Unidentified Woman #15 continues the bestselling Mac McKenzie Mystery series.

Rushmore McKenzie is driving on an Interstate in the Twin Cities during a snow storm when a young woman, who is bound, is dumped from a truck he’s behind. Mac avoids running over her, but...[read on]

The national bestselling author of Snow Way Out returns with more sparkling snow globes and cold-blooded murder…

It’s that time of the year again—the Christmas rush is about to begin, and curio shop owner Camryn Brooks and her BFF, coffee shop owner Alice “Pinky” Nelson, need to hire additional help. Their former high-school classmate, Molly Dalton, is not exactly who they had in mind. Has the rich socialite worked a day in her life? But Molly practically begs for the job.

On her first day, Molly seems to be in her own little world, and Cami worries that her new employee may flake out. The problem turns out to be far worse than that when Cami discovers Molly dead in the back of the shop, after drinking a poisoned cup of coffee. Soon there is an avalanche of suspects as Cami starts shoveling through the clues—including a shattered snow globe of Marilyn Monroe. Now Cami will have to venture out of her safety zone before the pathological poisoner stirs up more trouble…

My twitter feed has been buzzing with positivity about this book and now I’ve read it I can see why. Curses, tunnels, towers and castles all feature in this gothic dual narrative told in alternating chapters by Katy in the present day and Elinor in the past. Maslin leads the reader back and forth in time weaving a web of clues to follow, luring us into the history of the castle in the 19th century as the events of the past seep into the lives of Katy, Leo and the rest of the gang in the present. Reminiscent of the iconic Rebecca in places, fans of Du Maurier will enjoy Darkmere very much.

The second book in the Alchemy Wars trilogy by Ian Tregillis, an epic tale of liberation and war.

Jax, a rogue Clakker, has wreaked havoc upon the Clockmakers' Guild by destroying the Grand Forge. Reborn in the flames, he must begin his life as a free Clakker, but liberation proves its own burden.

Berenice, formerly the legendary spymaster of New France, mastermind behind her nation's attempts to undermine the Dutch Hegemony -- has been banished from her homeland and captured by the Clockmakers Guild's draconian secret police force.

Meanwhile, Captain Hugo Longchamp is faced with rallying the beleaguered and untested defenders of Marseilles-in-the-West for the inevitable onslaught from the Brasswork Throne and its army of mechanical soldiers.

Event: Sack of Rome in 1527 but there are many pivotal events and history makers in Rome's storied past worthy of more plays by Shakespeare or Racine or operas by Monteverdi or Purcell, including the martyrdom of St. Lawrence (258); the execution of Constantine's second wife Fausta and his son Crispus from his first marriage instigated by Constantine's mother Helena potentially for adultery (326); the meeting between St. Francis and St. Dominic in the church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill in 1215; and the political fortunes of the populist leader Cola di Rienzo (1313-1354) that pitted him against the papacy and the powerful Colonna and Orsini families until his short-lived return to papal favour for assistance in returning power to Rome from Avignon.

The Cotton Kings relates a rip-roaring drama of competition in the marketplace and reveals the damage markets can cause when they do not work properly. It also explains how they can be fixed through careful regulation. At the turn of the twentieth century, cotton was still the major agricultural product of the American South and an important commodity for world industry. Key to marketing cotton were futures contracts, traded at exchanges in New York and New Orleans. Futures contracts had the potential to hedge risk and reduce price volatility, but only if the markets in which they were traded worked properly. Increasing corruption on the powerful New York Cotton Exchange pushed prices steadily downwards in the 1890s, impoverishing millions of cotton farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tried to solve the problem with better crop predictions and market information, shared equally and simultaneously with all participants, but these efforts failed.

To fight the cotton market's corruption, cotton brokers in New Orleans, led by William P. Brown and Frank Hayne, began quietly to assemble resources. They triumphed in the summer of 1903, when they cornered the world market in cotton and raised its price to reflect the reality of increasing demand and struggling supply. The brokers' success pushed up the price of cotton for the next ten years. However, the structural problems of self-regulation by market participants still threatened the cotton trade. More corruption at the New York Cotton Exchange appeared, until eventually political pressure inspired the Cotton Futures Act of 1914, the federal government's first successful regulation of a financial derivative.

It’s nice to see hard science fiction written by someone who knows what she’s talking about. That’s the case with C.A. Higgins and her debut novel, Lightless. She holds a degree in physics, and it shows through in this story. In a dystopian future solar system, resistance is beginning to spread. When a pair of dissenters board a top secret spacecraft, the crew must contend with the consequences from both the System and their own ship. This book is a fascinating, deliberate read that keeps you on your toes right to the very end.

* * *

The Mechanical, Ian Tregillis

Ian Tregillis’ novels have always delighted us—but The Mechanical, the first of a trilogy, is his best book yet. Jax is a mechanical man, who’s powered by alchemy. He’s faithful to his masters, but he yearns for freedom. And meanwhile, a group of conspirators who are plotting against the Dutch empire discover the Dutch are way ahead of them. We already can’t wait for the next volume.

One book I finished reading recently and loved is Claire North’s Touch. I don’t read an awful lot of science fiction but the premise grabbed me straight away, along with the writing. The basic idea is that Kepler can jump from one body to another via touch. S/he usually ripples through life seamlessly until someone is after them and happy to kill any body they’re wearing to...[read on]

The epic conclusion to the fast-paced new adventure fantasy series, the Duelists trilogy, from one of the most exciting new talents in fantasy.

Vocho and Kacha may be known for the first swordplay in the city of Reyes, but they've found themselves backed into a corner too often for their liking.

Finally reinstated into the Duelist's Guild for services rendered to the prelate, who has found himself back in charge, Vocho and Kacha are tasked with bringing a prisoner to justice. But this prisoner is none other than Kacha's old flame Egimont. The prelate wants him alive, and on their side. However the more they discover of Egimont and his dark dealings with the magician, the more Kacha's loyalties are divided. Soon she must choose a side -- the prelate or the king, her brother or her ex-lover.

Anyone who writes about popular culture has to contend with Kael: her taste, her voice, her seductive arguments and maddening inconsistencies. She’s inescapable, and this collection of her early work—written before she became an institution at The New Yorker—shows her at her vital, bruising best.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Ann Decker fixes computers for a living, and in the evenings she passes the time sharpening her hacking skills. It’s not a very interesting life, but she gets by—until one day she’s contacted with a job offer for a company called Transformations Incorporated. None of her coworkers have ever heard of it before, and when Ann is finally told what the company does, she can hardly believe it: TI has invented technology to travel in time.

Soon Ann is visiting a matriarchy in ancient Crete, and then a woman mathematician at the Library of Alexandria. But Transformations Incorporated remains shrouded in mystery, and when Ann finally catches her breath, there are too many troubling questions still unanswered. Who are Transformations Incorporated, and what will they use this technology to gain? What ill effects might going back in time have on the present day? Is it really as harmless as TI says?

When a coworker turns up dead, Ann’s superiors warn her about a covert group called Core out to sabotage the company. Something just isn’t right, but before she has time to investigate, Ann is sent to a castle in the south of France, nearly a thousand years in the past. As the armies of the Crusade arrive to lay siege, and intrigue grows among the viscount’s family, Ann will discover the startling truth—not just about the company that sent her there, but also about her own past.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

The parallel world that Alice enters in these two books is a much stranger world than our own, populated by peculiar creatures with a fondness for wordplay and grinning cats – so not too different from Twitter really. But while Alice reaches Wonderland by falling down a rabbit hole or stepping through a mirror in order to meet the Cheshire Cat, Albie Bright takes inspiration from Schrödinger’s Cat to travel to parallel worlds.

My subject, Napoleon Bonaparte, has been acted hundreds of times in films. Among just the English-speaking actors to play him have been Marlon Brando (Désirée), Ian Holm (The Emperor’s New Clothes), Rod Steiger (Waterloo) and Eli Wallach (The Adventures of Gerard). My favorite Napoleon film, though, is probably the kitschy but delicious French biopic done by Sacha Guitry in the 1950’s, which features both Daniel Gélin and Raymond Pellegrin as Napoleon, and...[read on]

When the Japanese began their brutal occupation of the Philippines in January 1942, 76,000 ill and starving Filipino and American troops tried to hold out on Bataan and Corregidor. That spring, after having been forced to surrender, most of those men were thrown into Japanese POW camps while dozens of others slipped away to organize guerrilla forces. During the three violent years of occupation that followed, Allied sympathizers in Manila smuggled supplies and information to the guerrillas and the prisoners.

Theresa Kaminski's Angels of the Underground tells the story of four American women who were part of this little-known resistance movement: Gladys Savary, Claire Phillips, Yay Panlilio, and Peggy Utinsky - all incredibly adept at skirting occupation authorities to support the Allied war effort. The nature of their clandestine work meant that the truth behind their dangerous activities had to be obscured as long as the Japanese occupied the Philippines. If caught, they would be imprisoned, tortured, and executed. Throughout the Pacific War, these four women remained hidden behind a veil of deceit and subterfuge.

An impressive work of scholarship grounded in archival research, FBI documents, and memoirs, Angels of the Underground illuminates the complex political dimensions of the occupied Philippines and its importance to the war effort in the Pacific. Kaminski's narrative sheds light on the Japanese-occupied city of Manila; the Bataan Death March and subsequent incarceration of American military prisoners in camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan; and the formation of guerrilla units in the mountains of Luzon.

Angels of the Underground offers the compelling tale of four ordinary American women propelled by extraordinary circumstances into acts of heroism, and makes a significant contribution to the work on women's wartime experiences. Through the lives of Gladys, Yay, Claire, and Peggy, who never wavered in their belief that it was their duty as patriotic American women to aid the Allied cause, Kaminski highlights how women have always been active participants in war, whether or not they wear a military uniform.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Devil’s Share by Wallace Stroby & Young Americans by Josh Stallings

Both of these books understand it’s not as much the crime as it is the characters committing it that make a great heist novel. That said, both have great set pieces; The Devil’s Share deals with the hijacking of Iraqi art about to be repatriated, and The Young Americans are robbing a gay disco during the glitter rock era of the Seventies.

I write history but read a lot of travel literature for pleasure. Three books in particular have stood out for me in the past year, all of them I guess little known, all about worlds that are not remote to us in distance, but are now either vanished or largely unvisitable.

A book that has obsessed me so much that I read it twice, almost back to back in translation, is The Way of the World by Nicholas Bouvier. Two young French Swiss, Bouvier and his friend Thierry Vernet, set out from Belgrade in 1953 in a tiny Fiat on a road trip to Afghanistan. They have an accordion and a guitar and they play music with the gypsies; they paint and write and see the world afresh, as if for the first time. Bouvier is a philosopher of journeying and he travels slowly, savouring those intensely special moments that...[read on]

In Empires of the Sea and City of Fortune, New York Times bestselling author Roger Crowley established himself as our generation’s preeminent historian of the great European seafaring empires, and the go-to author for post-Crusade clashes of East and West. Now, in Conquerors, Crowley gives us the epic story of the emergence of Portugal, a small, poor nation that enjoyed a century of maritime supremacy thanks to the daring and navigational skill of its explorers—a tactical advantage no other country could match. Portugal’s discovery of a sea route to India, campaign of imperial conquest over Muslim rulers, and domination of the spice trade would forever disrupt the Mediterranean and build the first global economy.

Crowley relies on letters and eyewitness testimony to tell the story of tiny Portugal’s rapid and breathtaking rise to power. Conquerors reveals the Império Português in all of its splendor and ferocity, bringing to life the personalities of the enterprising and fanatical house of Aviz. Figures such as King Manuel “the Fortunate,” João II “the Perfect Prince,” marauding governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and explorer Vasco da Gama juggled their private ambitions and the public aims of the empire, often suffering astonishing losses in pursuit of a global fortune. Also central to the story of Portugal’s ascent was its drive to eradicate Islamic culture and establish a Christian empire in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese explorers pushed deep into the African continent in search of the mythical Christian king Prester John, and they ruthlessly besieged Indian port cities in their attempts to monopolize trade.

The discovery of a route to India around the horn of Africa was not only a brilliant breakthrough in navigation but heralded a complete upset of the world order. For the next century, no European empire was more ambitious, no rulers more rapacious than the kings of Portugal. In the process they created the first long-range maritime empire and set in motion the forces of globalization that now shape our world. At Crowley’s hand, the complete story of the Portuguese empire and the human cost of its ambition can finally be told.

Robin Coste Lewis' debut poetry collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus, won a 2015 National Book Award. One of the poet's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Jazz by Toni Morrison

It would be enough that Jazz brilliantly explores a significant moment from the past through the story of a love triangle in Harlem, and that Morrison layers various histories so that each steps up then recedes — yes! — like jazz improvisation. But on top of all that, she draws and redraws the frame of narration, ever so subtly, so that one begins to wonder about the narrator's identity in the way one wonders about God's.

Christine Husom has once again captured the essence of a rural Minnesota mystery as she draws readers into the Secret in Whitetail Lake. When the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department stumbles upon a car at the bottom of Whitetail Lake, what appears to be a probable accident from three decades earlier, turns into something far more sinister that makes this story a page turner.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

I think the most important way to decide this would be – would they look right in the right sort of clothing (think Musketeers) and can they pull off the swagger? I didn’t really have any actors in mind when I was writing, but one or two did spring to mind later, especially when I saw the covers. Kacha there has a hint of Ronda Rousey about her, and she would fit perfectly with how I...[read on]

This is a memoir by a woman who lost a parent and found a hawk. Macdonald, a scholar at Cambridge University, went to pieces after her father died, and in her mourning she did something unexpected: she purchased a goshawk. Macdonald was already an experienced handler of birds, but goshawks are large and wild and fierce even by hawk standards, and she’d never tried to tame one before. The war of wills that ensued may have made the goshawk (Macdonald names her Mabel) tamer, but it made Macdonald wilder too. It also proved strangely healing and redemptive, and she describes her avian adversary in language so breathtaking and immediate, you’d swear one was sitting on your shoulder.

Rome, the Eternal City - birthplace of western civilisation and soul of the ancient world - has a history that stretches back two thousand five hundred years. It is also one of the most-visited places in the world, but where does one begin to delve into two millennia of history, culture, art and architecture, whilst also navigating the vibrant modern city? Mario Erasmo here guides the traveller through Rome's many layers of history, exploring the streets, museums, piazze, ruins and parks of this 'city of the soul'. Punctuated with anecdote, myth and legend, these unique walks often retrace the very steps taken by ancient Romans, early Christians, medieval pilgrims, Renaissance artists and aristocrats on the Grand Tour. Here is a rich cultural history of Rome that brings its epic past alive, illuminating the extraordinary sights and fascinating secrets of one of Europe's most beguiling cities.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Tessa Wilson’s life is all over the map. She may be clumsy, but this time she’s stumbled into a pickle by choice, not by accident. She’s agreed to take a month-long trip around Texas jammed into a ’59 Cadillac with a drama-loving teenager, two elderly spitfires, and—oh, yes—her biological mama who gave her away at birth. And the ride gets even crazier when hot-as-sin cowboy Branch Thomas crosses into her lane. They don’t call him the sexiest man in the Lone Star State for nothin’.

As the miles pass and sparks fly between Tessa and Branch, her grandmother starts dropping hints about family wedding traditions. And as Tessa discovers the power of her budding friendships and the unbreakable strength of her newfound family of strong Texas women, she wonders if she’s also on the road to the biggest adventure of all: true love.

For months, I’d been resisting the recommendation of a friend of mine to read a certain book. “You’ll love it,” she kept insisting, but it was set in a post-plague world and I figured I’d read enough of those. I didn’t want to read it and get one of those post-book hangovers that left me depressed for days.

But I finally gave in. And you know what? She was right. I did love it. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It is set in a post-plague world, and parts of it are downright depressing and even frightening, but…but I won’t say anything else other than that it was outstanding. I could never in a million years have written anything like that and...[read on]

Springtime in Chilson, Michigan, means it’s librarian Minnie Hamilton’s favorite time of year: maple syrup season! But her excitement fades when her favorite syrup provider, Henry Gill, dies in a sugaring accident. It’s tough news to swallow…even if the old man wasn’t as sweet as his product.

On the bookmobile rounds with her trusty rescue cat Eddie, Minnie meets Adam, the old man’s friend, who was with him when he died. Adam is convinced Henry’s death wasn’t an accident, and fears that his own life is in danger. With the police overworked, it’s up to Minnie and Eddie to tap all their resources for clues—before Adam ends up in a sticky situation…

The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (2006)

A young boy comes across an old Punch and Judy booth standing alone on the shingle beach. The thuggish red puppet soon appears and begins to talk to the boy from the stage. Later, the boy makes the acquaintance of a sinister Punch and Judy “professor” who lets him try on some of the glove puppets. When he asks to try on Mr Punch he is refused, being told “once you bring Mr Punch to life there’s no getting rid of him”. This is a tale of fading childhood memories and the intrusion of adult evil into the innocence of youth. Dave McKean’s ominous graphics, combining puppet tableaux, photomontage and paint, create a wonderfully macabre atmosphere around Gaiman’s characters.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context.

David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility--for both good and ill--that Napoleon represented. By his late twenties, Napoleon was already one of the greatest generals in European history. At thirty, he had become absolute master of Europe's most powerful country. In his early forties, he ruled a European empire more powerful than any since Rome, fighting wars that changed the shape of the continent and brought death to millions. Then everything collapsed, leading him to spend his last years in miserable exile in the South Atlantic.

Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued, and his success in mobilizing human and material resources. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.

Remember, Santa, when all the little boys and girls asked for Beanie Babies in the ‘90s? And you scratched your head and wondered what the heck was going on? Here’s a fascinating look at the rise of Beanie Baby mania, the eccentric man behind the meteoric success of the plush toys, and the aftermath of the craze.

As he was a rescue, he already had a name, Freckles. However I refused to stand in the park shouting that, so we shortened it to Frek. He’ll actually answer to anything ending in “eck” so Shrek is also a common one. He also gets called Frekadoodle, I have no idea why....[read on]

The epic conclusion to the fast-paced new adventure fantasy series, the Duelists trilogy, from one of the most exciting new talents in fantasy.

Vocho and Kacha may be known for the first swordplay in the city of Reyes, but they've found themselves backed into a corner too often for their liking.

Finally reinstated into the Duelist's Guild for services rendered to the prelate, who has found himself back in charge, Vocho and Kacha are tasked with bringing a prisoner to justice. But this prisoner is none other than Kacha's old flame Egimont. The prelate wants him alive, and on their side. However the more they discover of Egimont and his dark dealings with the magician, the more Kacha's loyalties are divided. Soon she must choose a side -- the prelate or the king, her brother or her ex-lover.

I am so excited to blog here today because for once I know exactly who I want to cast as my main characters. I actually cut out these actors' photos before I wrote any of the books, and tacked them up in my office. The Readaholics have always been clear to me, and I hope none of you will gasp and say, "Oh, no, that actor couldn't play Amy-Faye (or Lola or Brooke)."

For those of you who don't know, the Readaholics are the five women who participate in a mystery book club in fictional Heaven, Colorado. In each book, they are reading a classic mystery that somehow figures into solving the murders they end up investigating. In The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco, they were reading The Maltese Falcon. In the latest book, The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle, they're reading Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

They are Amy-Faye Johnson, the main protagonist, who is a 32-year-old event organizer; Brooke Widefield, Amy-Faye's best friend who is a former Miss Colorado and who married into the richest family in town; Lola Paget, a couple years ahead of Amy-Faye and Brooke in school, who turned the family farm into a plant nursery and supports her grandmother and younger sister; Maud Bell, a sixty-something fishing guide and conspiracy theory blogger; and Kerry Sanderson, a Realtor and Heaven's part-time mayor, who is a late forties divorcee with a grown daughter and a teenage son.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

“Hush Hush” by Laura Lippman (William Morrow): Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan’s most welcome return after a three-year hiatus finds the perceptive detective juggling motherhood of a precocious toddler while working for a wealthy woman who was found not guilty of killing her infant daughter 12 years before. Parenting issues seldom are fodder for crime fiction, but Lippman uses this to provide an emotional depth for an exciting mystery that spins on the precise character studies.

Featured at Writers Read: Mario Erasmo, author of several books, including Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy, Reading Death in Ancient Rome, and the historical walking guides, Strolling Through Rome and Strolling Through Florence.

His entry begins:

Charles Spencer, Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared To Execute Charles I (Bloomsbury, 2014).

In this gripping book, Charles Spencer traces the fascinating series of events leading to the trial and execution of Charles I, the fate of participants in the trial, and the consequences to the Stuarts and Bourbons. I was drawn to the subject from the perspective of the Medici as players on the world stage of politics. Many people are familiar with the ancestry of Charles I but many do not know that Henrietta Maria of France was a Medici. In many ways the marriage between Charles I and Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Henry IV of France and Navarre and Marie de Médicis, the granddaughter of Cosimo I Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I was a successful dynastic match that brought the Stuarts closer to the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs through their Bourbon relatives. From the perspective of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans...[read on]

Mario Erasmo's historical walking guides, Strolling Through Rome: The Definitive Walking Guide to the Eternal City and Strolling Through Florence: The Definitive Walking Guide to the Renaissance City, take visitors step-by-step through the eras and areas of the cities to experience first-hand the sites and art that have played an enormous role in shaping Western Culture.

Erasmo is Professor of Classics at the University of Georgia specializing in the Legacy of Classical Antiquity. He is the author of several books, including Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy and Reading Death in Ancient Rome and the volume editor of A Cultural History of Death in Antiquity.

Jill Kismet is a Hunter, meaning that she is one of the rare humans who hunts the monsters that hide among mortals called hellbreeds. Having accepted a mark from a particularly nasty hellbreed, Jill is a little more resilient than the average human, but carries a heck of a lot more angst than the average human too. In the first book of this series, Jill needs to hunt down a hellbreed who has gotten loose and killed a few cops. If you like how Jessica Jones rises above her "damaged" status, or the unique and creepy villain Kilgrave, you'll enjoy the adventures of Jill Kismet.

The national bestselling author of Snow Way Out returns with more sparkling snow globes and cold-blooded murder…

It’s that time of the year again—the Christmas rush is about to begin, and curio shop owner Camryn Brooks and her BFF, coffee shop owner Alice “Pinky” Nelson, need to hire additional help. Their former high-school classmate, Molly Dalton, is not exactly who they had in mind. Has the rich socialite worked a day in her life? But Molly practically begs for the job.

On her first day, Molly seems to be in her own little world, and Cami worries that her new employee may flake out. The problem turns out to be far worse than that when Cami discovers Molly dead in the back of the shop, after drinking a poisoned cup of coffee. Soon there is an avalanche of suspects as Cami starts shoveling through the clues—including a shattered snow globe of Marilyn Monroe. Now Cami will have to venture out of her safety zone before the pathological poisoner stirs up more trouble…

In Masters of Empire, the historian Michael A. McDonnell reveals the pivotal role played by the native peoples of the Great Lakes in the history of North America. Though less well known than the Iroquois or Sioux, the Anishinaabeg, who lived across Lakes Michigan and Huron, were equally influential. Masters of Empire charts the story of one group, the Odawa, who settled at the straits between those two lakes, a hub for trade and diplomacy throughout the vast country west of Montreal known as the pays d’en haut.

Highlighting the long-standing rivalries and relationships among the great Indian nations of North America, McDonnell shows how Europeans often played only a minor role in this history, and reminds us that it was native peoples who possessed intricate and far-reaching networks of commerce and kinship, of which the French and British knew little. As empire encroached upon their domain, the Anishinaabeg were often the ones doing the exploiting. By dictating terms at trading posts and frontier forts, they played a crucial part in the making of early America.

Through vivid depictions—all from a native perspective—of early skirmishes, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution, Masters of Empire overturns our assumptions about colonial America. By calling attention to the Great Lakes as a crucible of culture and conflict, McDonnell reimagines the landscape of American history.

My next two books – Superstition and Science – Renaissance to Enlightenment, a non-fic study of 16th-17th C thought, and The Devil’s Chalice – No.3 in the Thomas Treviot series of Tudor crime novels – are taking me deep into the world of the Renaissance magi. This is well-populated territory but, at the moment, I am particularly enjoying Philip Ball, The Devil’s Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science and Allan Chapman, Stargazers: Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope and the Church....[read on]

Based on the true story of the unsolved disappearance of Hans Holbein—famed portrait-painter of Henry VIII—this atmospheric historical novel plunges into an underworld of Tudor politics and intrigue.

The Real Crime: Hans Holbein, King Henry VIII's portrait painter, died in the autumn of 1543. A century later a chronicler reported that the artist had succumbed to plague, yet there is no contemporary evidence to support this. Suspicions have been raised over the centuries, but the mystery of what actually happened remains unsolved to this day.

Our Story: Young London goldsmith Thomas Treviot is awaiting a design for a very important jewelry commission from Hans Holbein. When the design fails to turn up, Thomas sends a servant to track Holbein down, only to discover that the painter has disappeared. In his hunt for Holbein and the lost design, Thomas is led into a morass of dangerous political intrigue, Spanish spies and courtiers that is more treacherous than he could ever have anticipated...

Geraldine Brooks is the author of The Secret Chord and other books. One of her seven great books about dogs, as shared with the Penguin Hotline:

Stepdog by Nicole Galland
In this delicious romp, boy meets girl only to discover that he’s also married her dog. A comic novel with much to say about the compromises of marriage and the expansive capabilities of the human heart.

In The Bronze Horseman, Alexander the dashing Red Army officer, patrolling the streets of a large city the day Hitler invades the Soviet Union, meets and falls in love with Tatiana, a comet of innocence and desire. I had visualized them in their entirety, him tall, her tiny, him dark-haired her blonde, the fire between them burning on all the pages of my story.

For the last fifteen years my readers and I have engaged in heated discussions about who can possibly live up to the images we have built up in our minds of these two unforgettable characters. This is an instance where the image on the screen, even the Imax version, cannot compare to the vividness of our imaginations.

But if we were to try, if we were to agree that somebody must play them on the screen, then Henry Cavill would be a fine choice indeed as...[read on]

Beards—they’re all the rage these days. Take a look around: from hip urbanites to rustic outdoorsmen, well-groomed metrosexuals to post-season hockey players, facial hair is everywhere. The New York Times traces this hairy trend to Big Apple hipsters circa 2005 and reports that today some New Yorkers pay thousands of dollars for facial hair transplants to disguise patchy, juvenile beards. And in 2014, blogger Nicki Daniels excoriated bearded hipsters for turning a symbol of manliness and power into a flimsy fashion statement. The beard, she said, has turned into the padded bra of masculinity.

Of Beards and Men makes the case that today’s bearded renaissance is part of a centuries-long cycle in which facial hairstyles have varied in response to changing ideals of masculinity. Christopher Oldstone-Moore explains that the clean-shaven face has been the default style throughout Western history—see Alexander the Great’s beardless face, for example, as the Greek heroic ideal. But the primacy of razors has been challenged over the years by four great bearded movements, beginning with Hadrian in the second century and stretching to today’s bristled resurgence. The clean-shaven face today, Oldstone-Moore says, has come to signify a virtuous and sociable man, whereas the beard marks someone as self-reliant and unconventional. History, then, has established specific meanings for facial hair, which both inspire and constrain a man’s choices in how he presents himself to the world.

This fascinating and erudite history of facial hair cracks the masculine hair code, shedding light on the choices men make as they shape the hair on their faces. Oldstone-Moore adeptly lays to rest common misperceptions about beards and vividly illustrates the connection between grooming, identity, culture, and masculinity. To a surprising degree, we find, the history of men is written on their faces.

Springtime in Chilson, Michigan, means it’s librarian Minnie Hamilton’s favorite time of year: maple syrup season! But her excitement fades when her favorite syrup provider, Henry Gill, dies in a sugaring accident. It’s tough news to swallow…even if the old man wasn’t as sweet as his product.

On the bookmobile rounds with her trusty rescue cat Eddie, Minnie meets Adam, the old man’s friend, who was with him when he died. Adam is convinced Henry’s death wasn’t an accident, and fears that his own life is in danger. With the police overworked, it’s up to Minnie and Eddie to tap all their resources for clues—before Adam ends up in a sticky situation…

Jane loves to meddle, and she has a habit of determining peoples’ personalities by their coffee orders. So it’s no surprise when she combines her two favorite hobbies and starts matchmaking her friends based on their drink of choice. But when her boss catches wind of the idea and turns it into an in-store promotion, Jane starts to question her decisions. Everything seems to be going fine…so why is she so sad about it? Funny and cute and perfect for reading while you curl up with a nice, hot latté, The Espressologist is an adorable take on Jane Austen’s Emma that’s almost as awesome as the YouTube-ified Emma Approved.

For work, I’m currently reading sources on the Haitian Revolution, including Marcus Rainsford’s fascinating early history of the events. Rainsford was a British army officer who spent considerable time in Haiti during the Revolution, and came to know and admire Toussaint Louverture.

This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context.

David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility--for both good and ill--that Napoleon represented. By his late twenties, Napoleon was already one of the greatest generals in European history. At thirty, he had become absolute master of Europe's most powerful country. In his early forties, he ruled a European empire more powerful than any since Rome, fighting wars that changed the shape of the continent and brought death to millions. Then everything collapsed, leading him to spend his last years in miserable exile in the South Atlantic.

Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued, and his success in mobilizing human and material resources. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.